Security personnel of Adamus Resources, a subsidiary of Endeavour mining corporation led by some military men attacked some residents of Nkroful in the Western Region including the assembly man of the area over a piece of land which the company claimed formed part of their mining concession.

But for the intervention of God, the Assembly man for the Nkroful Ebanso Electoral Area, Lord Cudjoe would have met his untimely death on Saturday 20th September 2014, after trying to protest the demolition of newly constructed buildings on a piece of land belonging to his people in the area by the mining company without any prior notice to the indigenes.

Narrating his ordeal to this journalist, Lord Cudjoe said he received a call from one of his people informing him about a demolition exercise going on at the area so he quickly rushed to find out for himself and upon reaching the area, he discovered that newly constructed buildings of the people including his own in-law was being destroyed by an excavator with a heavy security presence believed to be hired by the Adamus Resources.

He noted that due to the operations of Adamus Resources, the District Assembly has decided not to give building permits to anybody in the area with the reason that, until the mining company gives a report on the land since they claimed ownership of the area.

On the suspension of granting building permit, the assembly man hinted that“When I contacted the chief of my community Nana KwasiKutuah V, he also received the information with surprise and said he had not been informed of it, agreeing that clarifications be sought”.

Lord Cudjoe therefore lamented the situation as bitter and expects the District Chief Executive of the Elembelle District Assembly, Hon. Daniel Eshun to be more proactive in bringing a better conclusion to this matter.

“There are some reasons why I am feeling that Management has not been fair to the people of Nkroful and its leadership, especially the Assembly members and the Chief.

As Hon. Assembly members representing our people at the Assembly, we ought to get the right information to be relayed to our electorates and not the other way round.

As things stand now, the people are informing us of a critical situation affecting them. What is more embarrassing is that we (Assembly members affected) have no explanations to give them as to the rationale behind this directive.

Again, as the Convener for the Mines and Environment Sub-Committee of the Assembly, I believe that whatever is the backdrop for this directive will hinge on the environmental implications which could emanate from the building of the houses in the area being affected by this directive.

Against the above background, one is but forced to believe that the Assembly is steadily shrinking into just the core Management, waging a ‘psychological war of redundancy’ on most of its sub-committees and by extension, on the Assembly members.

However, Management ought to be cognizant of the fact that for the Assembly members to be given the respect they deserve from their electorates which will make them repose confidence in the District assembly, depend on a large extent to the quality and timeliness of information they get equipped with, largely from the District Assembly for relay to the communities” Lord Cudjoe laments.

Besides the ban on building permit, farmers of Nkroful has no access road to their farm-lands because the mining company has barricaded the area as security zone therefore one has to write official letter to the management of the Adamus Resources before it can be granted access to their farmlands, a situation which one of the residence described as preposterous and pathetic.

“How can the birthplace of Ghana’s first president Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah which is supposed to serve as a tourist community be treated with such vindictiveness” she asked.

When I called the DCE to hear his response on the matter, he said he is having a big event with the regional minister and the Minister for Energy therefore we should reschedule the meeting.